Seeing it through

PHOTO: CHONG JUN LIANG

Passion for her work and compassion for patients make Ms Lua Bao Wei’s work as a diagnostic radiographer satisfying

by mike lee

leeNATIONAL Healthcare Group (NHG) scholarship recipient Lua Bao Wei’s interest in health care began when she was a junior college student volunteering at Alexandra Hospital’s rehabilitation department.

Inspired by the staff who worked with dedication and compassion with the ge-riatric patients, she chose a less conven-tional route after her A levels.

Under the NHG Health Sciences schol-arship, she underwent a local three-year polytechnic course, followed by a one-year degree conversion course overseas.

Initially, her friends and family could not understand her decision — it meant giving up a place to study science at a local university.

She had also chosen to study diagnostic radiography, and they were worried about the radiation risks.

Ms Lua assured them that she would eventually finish with a degree, and that appropriate radiation protection measures are in place in the long-standing radiogra-phy profession.

With their concerns calmed, she began studies at Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP).

“Although the school work can be tough and demanding at times, life in NYP was generally fun with a relatively small class size which allowed more interaction with everyone in the class,”she remarks.

One of the more interesting classes let her experience darkroom processing, which was traditionally how X-ray films were developed.

There were also sociology electives where students would do role play for pre-sentations to put into practice the theories learnt in class.Her degree conversion was at the Uni-versity of Sydney, which she found rela-tively easy to adapt to as some of the course content was already familiar to her.

She also travelled, went skiing at the Snowy Mountains, and watched the new year fireworks at Sydney Harbour and the Mardi Gras parade.

After graduating, she began work in Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) in August 2007. TTSH handles a high volume of patients daily, but she was well prepared for her job.

During her studies, Ms Lua already did attachments at both government and pri-vate hospitals, as well as an overseas stint at Liverpool Hospital.

She started out in general radiography, and was occasionally rostered to the oper-ating theatre to operate a C-arm, a machine to aid surgeons in visualising certain body parts such as a fractured bone, so that they know where to place the implants.

Six months into the job, she started advanced modality training in computed tomography (CT), a more specific tool for imaging investigation compared to general radiography.

Miss Lua enjoys interacting with pa-tients, who come from all walks of life. Some of them, especially the elderly, share inter-esting life experiences and stories with her.On the other hand, the diversity can be challenging too.

“At work, there’s no such thing as a ‘standard patient’. As such, you are con-stantly thinking on your feet,” she says.

For example, some patients might not be able to assume the required positions for X-rays and scans. Miss Lua will have to think of how to help them adapt, and still achieve the required diagnostic image quality.

She is applying for a master’s course to further study CT.The career paths for radiographers are varied, with some moving to senior posi-tions and then becoming a principal radiog-rapher.

Others may move into administra-tion, or even go into teaching and research.Outside work, Miss Lua was an execu-tive committee member of the Singapore Society of Radiographers last year.

“I hope that some day, besides helping to educate future radiographers, I can also play a part in helping the whole profession gain more recognition locally and eventu-ally be similar in terms of recognition as our counterparts in other countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia,” says the 25-year-old.

She advises people considering a NHG scholarship: “Although working in the health-care sector might not be as excit-ing as in the medical dramas, if you think you have the passion to work with people, compassion for the patients and are able to take up the many challenges of work, you should give this career a try.

“Also, join with an open mindset as go-ing to the polytechnic after two years in ju-nior college is definitely a different kind of experience.”